Amati Music Festival™ is a distinguished international music festival where highly-motivated students work diligently to improve their solo performance and chamber music skills under the guidance of internationally-renowned master teachers. Now in its 15th season, the Festival will be conducted on the campus of Princeton University, in Princeton, New Jersey. Read More

The Amati Music Festival™ founders, faculty and staff have many years of experience organizing and teaching teenagers and young adults the fine art of piano and stringed instrument playing. Read More

Gerardo Teissonnière

Photo credit: Christian Steiner

Gerardo Teissonnière

AMF™ Piano Department Chair

Regarded by international critics and audiences alike as an artist of extraordinary musicianship and rare sensibility since his acclaimed solo recital debut at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., American pianist Gerardo Teissonnière brings to the concert stage an exciting amalgam of the diverse and important musical traditions he represents, performing in major concert series and venues throughout the world. From the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado to the Amati Music Festival in New York and Beijing, among others, Mr. Teissonnière has appeared in solo recital, as soloist with orchestra and with leading duo-piano and chamber music ensembles, as well as in radio and television broadcasts in the United States and abroad.

Highlights of recent concert seasons include his performance for an audience of twenty thousand and a solo recital at the 2013 International Music Festival in Chongqing, China, solo recitals of the Mozart piano sonatas, all-Chopin concerts in Poland, chamber music concerts in Latin America featuring première performances of the Sonata for Violin and Piano by Pablo Casals, and a return engagement with the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra in subscription concert performances the Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto, as well as appearances in concerts and master classes at Steinway Hall in New York City and in Beijing and Shandong, China, performing solo and chamber works of Mozart, Mussorgsky, Schubert, Schumann, Liszt and Ravel.

Gerardo Teissonnière began his musical training at an early age in San Juan under the guidance of Cecilia Talavera and Luz Hutchinson. He continued studies at the Conservatory with Jesús Maria Sanromá, disciple of Artur Schnabel and Alfred Cortot, and made his debut as soloist with the Puerto Rico Symphony while still a student as a laureate in the first Jesús Maria Sanromá Piano Competition.

Recognized as one of the most esteemed and sought-after piano pedagogues in the United States today, Mr. Teissonnière combines an active performance schedule with faculty appointments at the Cleveland Institute of Music and Case Western Reserve University, and serves as Artistic Director of the Piano Department and Artist-in-Residence at the Amati Music Festival in New York. In conjunction with his 2013

recital tour of China he conducted master classes in Beijing, Chongqing and Jinan Province. He is the recipient of the Alumni Achievement Award from the Cleveland Institute of Music in recognition of his outstanding accomplishment in the field of piano performance and pedagogy, the Judson Smart Living Award in Education, and has been nominated for the Ohio Arts Council’s Governor’s Award for the Arts. He is in great demand for his work with young musicians, and conducts master classes throughout the

world. Gerardo Teissonnière is an exclusive Steinway Artist and is listed in Who's Who in America, Who's Who Among America's Teachers, and Who's Who in the World.

Alejandro Mendoza is a member of the pre-college division violin faculty of the Manhattan School of Music and Teacher's College of Columbia University. A graduate of the Juilliard School and Cleveland Institute of Music, he founded the Amati Conservatory, Inc., a non-profit, educational institution that taught over 500 students and held more than 400 public recitals and concerts. Many Amati Conservatory graduates have won numerous awards and prizes and have gone on to further their studies in some of the major conservatories such as the Juilliard School, Eastman School of Music, New England Conservatory, Peabody Conservatory, Indiana University, Cleveland Institute of Music, and Manhattan School of Music. The Conservatory ecipient of numerous grants from the Bergen County Parks and Recreation Commission, Amati Conservatory has provided young musicians in the New York/New Jersey Metropolitan region with world-class education and training in piano, violin, viola, cello, bass, flute, clarinet, guitar, ensemble playing and performance. The Conservatory’s faculty includes teachers who are graduates of some of the most prestigious music conservatories around the world.

Eva Lerner-Lam has served as Executive Director of the Amati Music Festival since 2010. Since her affiliation with the Festival in 2004, she has been a strong supporter of the Founder's Vision and Mission to provide a special place for highly-motivated young artists to develop a sense of self-confidence and maturity in their solo and chamber music practicing and performance skills while enjoying the social interation and cameraderie of like-minded peers.

A pre-college piano student of Henrietta Wendt at Juilliard School and graduate of the pre-college division at Manhattan School of Music, Ms. Lerner-Lam received her Bachelor's Degree in Economics from Princeton University and her Master of Science Degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She was Co-Founder and Business Manager of the Princeton University Jazz Ensemble and is currently the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the International Music Institute of China(tm) and the President and Chairwoman of the Si-Yo Music Society Foundation, Inc.

One of the most important American artists of his generation, SPENCER MYER has garnered stellar audience and critical acclaim from around the globe, rapidly establishing a significant and continuously expanding career.

Spencer Myer includes in his current season returns to the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and New York City’s Park Avenue Chamber Symphony, as well as debuts with the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra, Michigan’s Holland Symphony Orchestra, Ohio’s Springfield Symphony Orchestra and the Boise Philharmonic. Solo recitals and chamber music collaborations throughout the United States include a solo recital in Chicago as the 2014 MTNA National Convention Artist and a return to London’s Wigmore Hall. In 2012, he teamed up with the award-winning cellist Adrian Daurov to form the Daurov/Myer Duo.

Spencer Myer’s orchestral, recital and chamber music performances have been heard throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Africa and Asia. He has been soloist with The Cleveland Orchestra, Louisiana, Cape Town and Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestras, the Baton Rouge, Indianapolis, Knoxville, New Haven, Phoenix, Santa Fe and Tucson Symphony Orchestras, Mexico’s Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco and Beijing’s China National Symphony Orchestra, collaborating with, among others, conductors Leslie B. Dunner, Bernhard Gueller, Jacques Lacombe, Jahja Ling, Timothy Muffitt, Maurice Peress, Kevin Rhodes, Matthew Savery, Klauspeter Seibel, Steven Smith, Arjan Tien and Victor Yampolsky. In May 2005, his recital/orchestral tour of South Africa included a performance of the five piano concerti of Beethoven with the Chamber Orchestra of South Africa, followed by return orchestra and recital tours in 2010 and 2012.

Spencer Myer’s recital appearances have been presented in New York City’s Weill Recital Hall, 92nd Street Y and Steinway Hall, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts and London’s Wigmore Hall, while many of his performances have been broadcast on WQXR (New York City), WHYY (Philadelphia), WCLV (Cleveland) and WFMT (Chicago). An avid chamber musician, he has collaborated with cellists Lynn Harrell and Ralph Kirshbaum, clarinetist David Shifrin, 2005 Cardiff Singer of the World winner Nicole Cabell, 2007 Wigmore Hall International Song Competition winner Martha Guth, and with the Blair, Jupiter, Manhattan, Miami and Pacifica String Quartets.

In 2004, Spencer Myer captured First Prize in the 10th UNISA International Piano Competition in Pretoria, South Africa, as well as special prizes for the best performances of Bach, the commissioned work, the semifinal round recital and both concerto prizes in the final round. He is also the Gold Medalist of the 2008 New Orleans International Piano Competition, and a laureate in the 2007 William Kapell, 2005 Cleveland, 2005 Busoni and 2004 Montréal International Piano Competitions. Winner of the 2006 Christel DeHaan Classical Fellowship from the American Pianists Association, Mr. Myer also received both of the competition’s special prizes in Chamber Music and Lieder Accompanying. He is also the winner of the 2000 Marilyn Horne Foundation Competition, and subsequently enjoys a growing reputation as a vocal collaborator. Mr. Myer was a member of Astral Artists performance roster from 2003 to 2010.

An enthusiastic supporter of the education of young musicians, Spencer Myer has been a frequent guest artist at workshops for students and teachers, and has served on the faculties of the Baldwin-Wallace College and Oberlin College Conservatories of Music. He is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where he studied with Julian Martin. Other teachers include Peter Takács, Joseph Schwartz and Christina Dahl. During the course of his undergraduate studies at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, he was the recipient of numerous awards from that institution, while, in 2000, he was named a recipient of a four-year Jacob K. Javits Memorial Fellowship from the United States Department of Education. His Doctor of Musical Arts degree was conferred by Stony Brook University in 2005.

Spencer Myer can be heard on the Dimension Records label, performing music of the late Cleveland composer Frederick Koch and on a composer-conducted Naxos CD in performances of three concerti from Huang Ruo’s Chamber Concerto Cycle. His debut CD for harmonia mundi usa - solo music of Busoni, Copland, Debussy and Kohs - was released in the fall of 2007. Mr. Myer’s most recent recorded performance is Ravel’s Chansons madécasses, included on "Intimate Masterpieces," a 2013 CD issued by Oberlin Music featuring faculty and alumni of the Oberlin Conservatory

Pianist Soyeon Park has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Canada, Romania, Italy, Czech Republic, China and Korea. She appeared on the stages of the La Villa D’este in Tivoli, Italy, Auditorium Camera Di Commercio and Cattedrale di Giarre in Sicily, Brevnov Monastery and Bertramka (the Mozart Museum) in Prague, Czech Republic, Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest, Romania, The Bravo Club in Beijing, China, Sejong Arts Center in Seoul, Korea, Banff Center Concert Hall in Alberta, Canada, Abravanel Hall in Salt Lake City, Steinway Hall, The Kosciuszko Foundation, and Weill Hall at the Carnegie Hall in New York.

As a young artist, she won many awards from various competitions and auditions including The Prague International Piano Festival Competition, ARTS (Arts Recognition and Talent Search) by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, Heida Hermann International Competition, Wideman Piano Competition and the Corpus Christi International Competition. Soyeon has participated in master classes with many renowned pianists, including Alexander Kobrin, Julian Martin, Robert McDonald, Ann Schein, Ian Hobson, Jerome Lowenthal, Tamás Vásáry, Ivan Moravec and Menahem Pressler.

A highly sought-after collaborative artist in New York City’s demanding classical music scene, Soyeon has frequently appeared at prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall and Steinway Hall. Her energetic and insightful interpretations of classical works have charmed and inspired many audiences, young and old. Sponsored by the Si-Yo Music Society Foundation, Inc., Soyeon appeared on stage this past season at the Museo del Violino in Cremona, Italy. Other professional engagements of the past season include a recital and master class with Leon Fleisher in Prague, and an artist residency at the Banff Centre, Canada giving numerous concerts and world premieres of works by contemporary composers. In the same season she won top prizes at the Simon Belsky Piano Competition and the Mieczyslaw Munz Chopin Competition.

A passionate advocate and educator of music, Soyeon served as an associate faculty member at The Center for Musical Excellence, and taught master classes at International Piano Academy in Beijing and the New York Piano Festival. Recently, she was appointed as the director of admissions of The Center for Muscial Excellence.

Soyeon received her Bachelor and Master Degrees from Manhattan School of Music and is a Teaching Fellow in the Doctoral program. She is a recipient of the Svend Svendsen and Margarethe Svendsen Scholarship and the President’s Award. Mr. Zenon Fishbein, a renowned pianist and pedagogue, guided Soyeon for fifteen years and continues to influence her after his passing.

Tara Hofmeister has performed in recital and as a chamber musician throughout Asia, Europe, and North America. She has played in such venues as Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York City, TorontoCenter for the Arts in Canada, Forbidden City Concert Hall in China, Euphrasius’ Basilica in Croatia, and Istana Budaya in Malaysia. Besides being featured on Tianjin Television in China as well as Wisconsin Public Radio in the United States, Ms. Hofmeister has participated in many concert series including Rachmaninoff Society, Amati Music Festival and Pianists for the New Millennium in New York, Amati Virtuoso Concert Series in New Jersey, Concerts by the Sea in California, Terra Magica Music Festival in Croatia, and International Piano Festival in Malaysia. She has collaborated with many distinguished artists including violinist, Siqing Lu.

Tara Hofmeister is Co-Founder and Artistic Director of the International Piano Academy of China™ (IPAC™). She developed the school's curriculum and its teaching practices are based on her teaching methods. Before that, she was a member of the piano faculty at the Middle School Attached to the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing where she taught scholarship students. She is the first piano professor in the history of the school to be unanimously voted onto the faculty. She is also an honorary faculty member at Fuyuan Cultural Arts Center in China. Her students have consistently been awarded scholarships to pursue both undergraduate and graduate degrees at leading conservatories including Manhattan School of Music and Mannes College of Music in New York City, and to participate in such music festivals as the Boston University Tanglewood Institute in Massachusetts and International Keyboard Institute and Festival in Manhattan. They have won numerous prizes such as The President’s Award at Manhattan School of Music in New York. Her students are actively performing concertos with orchestras, recitals, and as chamber musicians throughout Asia, Europe, and United States. She has been regularly invited to teach master classes, give lecture/performances, and adjudicate auditions and competitions in Asia, Europe, and the United States. Ms. Hofmeister has served on the piano faculty at Amati Conservatory and Preparatory Center for the Arts at Montclair State University in New Jersey, Amati Music Festival in New York, Terra Magica Music Festival in Croatia, and Opusfest International Piano Festival in the Philippines.

After a one-year engagement in 2000 as a regular columnist for Music Weekly, the foremost music newspaper in China, Ms. Hofmeister was invited to continue her column as a result of the enthusiastic response from Chinese readers. She wrote articles on music education in the United States, including interviews with Paul Sheftel and Solomon Mikowsky. Consequently, the newspaper awarded her Best Author of the Year in 2001. She has since been invited to write for Piano Artistry, the leading piano magazine in China, where her interview with Arnold Steinhardt was published, Philharmonic, China’s primary music magazine, where her interview with Rosalyn Tureck was published, and the Amati Libretto in the United States. Ms. Hofmeister currently writes regularly for The Allegretto™, IPAC™'s monthly newsletter.